


Not A Family

by neuronary



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Vanya Doesn't Get Her Memories Back AU, happy ending for vanya, not so happy ending for everyone else
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:01:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27216832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neuronary/pseuds/neuronary
Summary: “I’m not coming.”Five feels the world grind to a shrieking halt around him. Not the Handler’s brand of stopping time and moving around in a moment, but the same feeling of innate wrongness that comes with it. Reality shatters itself over his head and scatters at his feet.---Or, Vanya doesn't regain her memories at the end of season two. She chooses the family she remembers.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & Vanya Hargreeves, Sissy Cooper/Vanya Hargreeves - mentioned, Vanya Hargreeves & Everyone
Comments: 10
Kudos: 84





	Not A Family

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted on tumblr on a thursday about two months ago. the prompt was
> 
> _would love to see a tua au fic where they go back to the sixties and the apocalypse is averted, and they reunite and just live there. raymond and allison get to stay together and have a kid and see the progression of the civil rights movement together, ben gets a full reunion with and hugs from all his siblings, vanya gets to be in lesbians with that lady, klaus protests the vietnam war, they all coexist as a healing family, etc_
> 
> but i decided to write something completely different. and it ended up being really sad. hope you enjoy.

“I’m not coming.”

Five feels the world grind to a shrieking halt around him. Not the Handler’s brand of stopping time and moving around in a moment, but the same feeling of innate wrongness that comes with it. Reality shatters itself over his head and scatters at his feet.

“What?”

“I’m not coming,” Vanya says again, voice soft but decisive.

Five doesn’t have anything else to say to that. There’s nothing in his mind that can make this make sense.

“You’re a wanted criminal,” Allison points out, helpfully.

“Yeah,” Vanya says. Five doesn’t remember her being this confident ever. “Sissy thinks it sounds fun, and Harlan won’t mind either way as long as he’s got his tunes.”

Sissy and Harlan. Five wants to kill them.

“But,” says Klaus, summing up everything Five’s thinking in one little word.

But.

But the apocalypse is over. But Vanya is their sister. But family. But time. But Vanya.

But Five is supposed to win, now.

“I am sorry,” says Vanya, not really sounding it, “but I don’t remember you. Not really.”

Five feels like he’s been punched in the throat. This is wrong. This is all wrong.

“You’re not my family,” Vanya continues, as if her words aren’t carving away the only parts of him he has left, “not really. Not any more than Sissy and Harlan.” 

Everyone else looks crestfallen, confused. Five is beginning to understand all too well.

“It’s like Diego said.” She smiles as she speaks and Five can hear the Handler laughing from beyond the grave. “This is a team. That’s okay. It was a pretty good team, all things considered. But a team isn’t the same thing as a family.”

Diego looks like he wants to sink into the ground and die. Five can relate.

“I think you can be a family,” Vanya reassures them, a little awkwardly. “When you get back to 2019, I think you could be a really good family, but my family is here. With Sissy and Harlan.”

“We grew up together.” Allison’s voice is hoarse and strained. She’s crying, Five realises belatedly.

“I know,” Vanya says, still infuriatingly calm. “I remember bits and pieces. It wasn’t the same as family. I’m sorry. I know you were all doing your best.”

Allison looks torn between fury and heartbreak.

“Would you still go,” Vanya asks, voice quiet and knowing, “if it weren’t for Claire?”

And that’s the end of that.

Allison cries. A lot. She and Vanya and Klaus weep together and hug for what seems like hours but is in fact just five minutes. They talk about missing each other and Claire and clothes, and by the end of it all Allison has cheered up a bit. Five can’t speak for Klaus; he is always confusing.

Diego gives her a knife. It’s his way of giving his blessing. Five doesn’t hear what they say to each other, but it’s almost certainly a final round of apologies. It’s more closure than a goodbye.

Luther smiles.

“I think you should be proud,” he says, cementing his worst sibling status, seeing as Vanya ‘isn’t family’ anymore. “Good luck, Vanya. I hope you’re happy.”

“Thank you,” she says, and means it.

Five wants to scream, but doesn’t.

Then it’s his turn.

“Five?”

He doesn’t answer her. He can’t.

“I wish I remembered more about you,” she says. 

He turns away. He can’t handle another emotional speech; he’ll pass out or throw up or both. He’s fought too hard for too long for a consolation prize and there’s no commission workers left to kill but himself and if he did that Allison would start crying again so he can’t.

“I’ll get a violin,” Vanya says, after a very long silence, “and every time I play it, I’ll think of you.”

Five is old, and Five is selfish, and Five is, deep down, a truly horrendous person, so he picks up the briefcase and says to the siblings that still want him:

“We should go.”

If, when they get back to 2019, there are five journals, filled with laughter and memories and photographs of a growing boy with blonde hair and a toothy grin, Five will try to burn his. Allison will stop him moments before he nearly succeeds and she will hold him until he remembers that crying isn’t a waste of water anymore.

Vanya was always their sister more than most. Until she decided not to be.

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos are appreciated!


End file.
